Morality: The Old Faithful of End-Time Signs By Todd Strandberg One
of the most important tasks for Bible prophecy watchers is the ability to know
the direction that world events are trending. Because everyone wants to know
how close we are to the rapture, its important to keep track of events that
were determined by God to act as signposts. Most
end-time signs do not move in a straight line. They go through periods when
they seem to be moving towards the fulfillment of prophecy, and they go through
periods when they seem to be moving away from their prophetic destiny. The nuclear
arms race is one good example. From the 1950s to the mid 1980s, the Soviet
Union and the United States built up a massive number of atomic weaponry. Once
President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev decided to great reduce their
stockpiles, the threat of nuclear war went into a sharp decline. It is now
moving up as nations like Iran and North Korea seek to join the nuclear club. The
end-time indicator that probably has the most turbulent history is the European
Union. During the 1970s, prophecy scholars such as Hal Lindsey, Dave Hunt and
John Walvoord were very excited about the formation of this political and
economic entity. They knew the Bible had predicted the Roman Empire would some
day reform. I doubt any of these men would have thought that the EU would later
experience such a bumpy road. After the rejection of the EU constitution by
France and the Netherlands, it looked like the organization was headed for the
scrap heap. Despite all the setbacks, the process of integration moved on. Morality
is a rare end-time indicator that has not had any major ups and downs. It has
been in steady decline for all of my adult life. Morality’s relentless slide in
the wrong direction is the reason I dub it the "Old Faithful of End-Time
Signs." There
have been times when some groups have tried to retake the moral high ground,
but they have always failed to accomplish their goal. I have to go back to the
1950’s to find a trace of a significant revival movement. Once
a new form of immorality invades the land, it is very hard to remove it. Unless
immediate action is taken to deal with wickedness, people quickly become
desensitized to its presence. With time, even the vilest of sins can become
part of the mainstream culture. The
Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade fits this pattern. When the Court
legalized the killing of unborn children, conservatives dedicated themselves to
overturn that evil act. They had to wait nearly 20 years before there was a
conservative majority in the Supreme Court. When Planned Parenthood v. Casey
came before the Court in 1992, a majority of the justices refused to turn the
tide. In 2000, they even failed to strike down a Nebraska law that would have
banned partial birth abortions. In both rulings, the common view was that
abortion was untouchable because it was now part of the law of the land. To
see the momentum in action, one only has to look at the news headlines of any
given week. Here are four examples from the past few days....... "Grey's Anatomy" actor Isaiah Washington got
into hot water when he called one of his fellow homosexual cast members a
"faggot" at a Golden Globe Awards backstage press conference. To save
his job, he checked into a treatment center to address his "homophobic
issues." At one point, a person having same-sex relationships was regarded
as being in need of mental health. It blows my mind to think that the gay
person is now seen as the sane one. An ad company working for the Cartoon Network sparked a
terrorism scare in much of central Boston on January 31. The advertising
campaign featured blinking electronic devices wired to battery packs, and
planted them in the transportation infrastructure, leading police to fear they
were bombs. The devices were placed in 10 cities as part of a guerrilla
marketing campaign to promote the cartoon, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
With all the coverage this story received, few people in the media took note of
the fact that the cartoon figure represented in this ad was giving the finger. The
sudden death of Anna Nicole Smith sparked a media frenzy. The Drudge Report
posted no less than 12 news items about her. CNN and Fox News had nearly
24-hour coverage of every small detail of Smith’s death. With so much attention
being paid to her passing, a visitor from another planet might assume she was
once a great political leader, a famous author, or maybe a renowned military
commander. Unfortunately, the fanfare was for a one-time topless dancer who
gained fame by marrying an 89-year-old billionaire. Judging by the video loops
the media constantly ran while talking about Smith, it would appear that her
main calling in life was to show up at various media events and look pretty for
the camera. The issue here is not that journalistic standards have hit a new
low. The Michael Jackson molestation trial still holds that the record for
tackiness. The new benchmark here is for a lack of remorse in the face of
profound personal tragedy. Here we have a celebrity who wasted her life away on
perverse living, and the media has no regrets about influencing the young girls
that might be following in Smith's footsteps. Only
the Lord knows how long we can continue on this downward projection. The
history of great civilizations tells us we will reach a point when society decides
to reforms itself or we will eventually disintegrate from corruption. I've
long given up hope that calamity can be avoided. My conclusion is not based on
the feeling that mankind deserves judgment. It is simply the realization that
apologetics is dead and there is nothing to prevent us from moving closer to
the abyss.
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